Alright Dr. Moms, I need your opinions...

StephDK

Caleb has had a milk allergy and has been getting bm bottles mixed with RTF alimentum for months now.  He refuses the powdered alimentum because it smells TERRIBLE and will no longer nurse.  I am trying really hard to keep pumping, but my supply is slowing starting to dwindle.  He is no longer bothered by soy (if ever) as I consume soy products often.  DH and I will certainly do whatever to feed C, but because he is on alimentum, and only takes the RTF (I've tried the powder over and over again) it is going to be unbelieveably expensive to go straight to formula as the RTF is $9 per quart (32 oz.) which is basically a day supply of formula.  I asked about switching to soy, but our pedi doesn't really like soy formula.  Do you think I should try to slowly introduce regular formula?  Like a 1/4 oz mixed with a bottle once/day?  His original side effects from milk were  mostly fussiness and mucousy poop with visible blood in 2 diapers when he was 3 weeks old.  He hasn't had milk protein since then. TIA!   

PenDun

I'd say it's worth a shot. He very well could've outgrown the allergy by now, and if not, then at least you know and can easily go back to what you were doing. I don't blame you for wanting to switch, I can't imagine how expensive that would be. And I would do like you said and just start with a little bit and see how he handles it. Then you can increase the amount every day. Good luck!

larissasalvato

This might sound wierd, but try searching Craig's List for people who bought the Alimentum in bulk and don't need it anymore.  My LO was on Alimentum for 4 months, thankfully the powdered kind, but it was definitely expensive.  I purchased 8 canisters of it for $100 - about 1/2 price.  The mom who sold it to me could only use RTF because her son had a corn allergy.  All the cans were sealed and not expired, of course.

StephDK

jun06feb11:

This might sound wierd, but try searching Craig's List for people who bought the Alimentum in bulk and don't need it anymore.  My LO was on Alimentum for 4 months, thankfully the powdered kind, but it was definitely expensive.  I purchased 8 canisters of it for $100 - about 1/2 price.  The mom who sold it to me could only use RTF because her son had a corn allergy.  All the cans were sealed and not expired, of course.

 Good idea.  You said th at you LO was only on it 4 month.  How did you get off of it? 

racheldaigle46

DK,

Leeland was found to have a milk protein allergy at 2 weeks old, with the same symptoms as C. 

My supply has recently decreased as well, and our pedi said supplementing with soy was fine (especially since he eats 2 meals per day of solids, and gets breastmilk as much as possible= he is actually getting a very small amount of formula). Did the pedi say why he didn't like the idea of soy? I think supplementing with soy would be much safter than trying a milk-based formula.

Also, I have started putting milk products back into my diet, and have seen no effects on Leeland. He might have outgrown the milk protein allergy, but our Pedi was not for putting him on a milk-based formula to supplement with. KWIM?

Am I making sense?

 

larissasalvato

She didn't have an allergy - just MAJOR colic.  I'm not even sure that the Alimentum did anything to help but I figured I should stay on it even if it helped just a little.  Her digestive system was more developed by 4 months so the pedi told me to switch to the Similac Advance once I ran out of my Alimentum supply, and see how she does.  She was fine.  Mosly because she was just pretty much over the colic by then.  But we just did a cold switch to the Advance.  But again, no allergy for us so it may be different for you.

lexigrl

DS2 has a milk protein sensitivity and we switched him to soy about a month ago he has been doing wonderfully on it. If that didn't work we would have gone to Alimentum but he tolerates the soy so we got lucky. Our pedi doesn't like Soy formula either but our gastroenterologist is the one who put him on it and said to leave him on it since he is doing so well.